Even i can’t foster this one (Wordless Wednesday) and Reconcile (Words for Wednesday)

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourages us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, Elephant’s Child is posting prompts sent to her by others.  

This week’s prompts are photos by Bill Dodds:     

They hadn’t seen each other since the last time they’d ended up at the old family cemetery together, and that had ended in a screaming match.  Thus she lingered at the edge of the woods, hoping he would finish soon and go so she could have a chance to visit with the beloved departed.

It didn’t seem, now that the shadows were getting long, like that was going to happen.  As the temperature sank she shifted to pull her coat a bit tighter, and accidentally stepped on a twig that broke with an unusually loud noise in that quiet place.

She held her breath as he looked up and realized it was too late to hide.  He stared at her quietly, his face a blank, then waved her over.

By the time she got even with him, he was again standing as he had almost the whole time he’d been there, hands clasped behind him, staring quietly at the headstone.  She stood next to him, hardly daring to breathe.

As they stood side by side, time slipped by and the shadows grew even longer.  They knew they’d both have to head in soon.  It was hard enough sometimes finding your way out here in the day, neither wanted night to catch them trying to cross the fields where a wrong step could wrench an ankle or worse.

Finally he heaved a sigh.  “There was a time,” he said, breaking their silence, “when I would have asked how long you’ve been standing there and accused you of trying to spy on me.”

She just looked at him with a wistful smile, not sure what to say.

“I can’t live that way any more, especially not with you,” he said, and when he turned to look at her, she noticed a look in his eyes she’d never seen there before.

“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.

“It’s amazing what a visit to a doctor that ends in him giving you the long face will do to make you realize how wrong you are about some things,” he said, his voice almost breaking.

“Child, can you forgive me?  I never really blamed you for her death, I was just so lost without her, and I took it out on the person I should have held closest instead...” his voice gave out into racking sobs.

She enfolded him into her arms, tears breaking loose.  “Oh, Daddy, I knew you didn’t really blame me for what happened to Mama!  And no matter what the doctor said, we can deal with it if we face it together.”

His sobs calmed and they turned without a word, heading back to the house hand in hand.

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Today is:

Absurdity Day -- an internet generated absurd holiday

Africa Industrialization Day -- UN

Air Your Dirty Laundry Day -- internet generated, and be careful with this one!

Beaujolais Nouveau Release -- France (at midnight, so really most of the celebration is tomorrow, a new wine celebrationmarked with fireworks and festivities)

Beautiful Day -- Fairy Calendar

Clean the Cat Hair Out of the Vacuum Cleaner Day -- internet generated, and always tops on my chore list

Day of Sekhmet and the Purifying Flame -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Day of National Sovereignty -- Argentina (commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado)

Dia da Consciencia Negra -- Brazil (Black Consciousness Day)

Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day aka G.O.H.A.R.D

Name Your PC Day -- mine is Ol' Bessy, a/k/a Old Crankypants; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays  

National Educational Support Professionals Day -- US

National Peanut Butter Fudge Day

Praetextatus and Paulina's Day -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Guardians of the Eleusinian Mysteries, pagan activists and devotees who tried to save Roman religions; date approximate)

Repentance Day -- Saxony, Germany (Day of Prayer and Repentance [Buss und Bettag])

     Buss und Bettag -- German speaking Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestants (Day of Repentance and Prayer)

Revolution Day -- Mexico (traditional)

St. Edmund the Martyr's Day (Patron of kings, torture victims, wolves; East Anglia, England; against plagues)

Teachers' Day -- Vietnam

Tori No Ichi -- Japan (the first "rooster day" of November, so called because it is held on the two or three days of the rooster this month, in which to wish good luck and prosperity at temple and shrine ceremonies around the country, and celebrate with a fair)

Transgender Day of Remembrance -- memorial for those who have been killed because of transphobia

Universal Children's Day -- UN

World COPD Day -- International (helping people understand Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; this year's theme is "All Together to End COPD")   

Zumbi Day -- Brazil (death anniversary of Zumbi dos Palmares, a day of Afro-Brazilian consciousness, as he was a hero and freedom fighter)

Anniversaries Today:

The Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London, 1947

The first municipal airport in the US opens, in Tuscon, AZ, 1919

Birthdays Today:

Sabrina Lloyd, 1970

Ming-Na Wen, 1967

Sean Young, 1959

Bo Derek, 1956

Steve Dahl, 1954

Richard Masur, 1948

Duane Allman, 1946

Judy Wooodruff, 1946

Veronica Hamel, 1943

Joe Biden, 1942

Dick Smothers, 1939

Don DeLillo, 1936

Richard Dawson, 1932

Estelle Parsons, 1927

Kaye Ballard, 1926

Robert F. Kennedy, 1925

Nadine Gordimer, 1923

Gene Tierney, 1920

Robert Byrd, 1917

Alistair Cooke, 1908

Chester Gould, 1900

Edwin Hubble, 1889

Karl von Frisch, 1886

Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1866

Selma Lagerlf, 1858

Sir Wilfred Laurier, 1841

Thomas Chattertn, 1752

Oliver Wolcott, 1726

Susanna Wesley, 1669 (mother of John, Charles, and 17 other children)

Peregrine White, 1620 (born on the Mayflower)

Maximinus, Roman Emperor, 270

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Beatles Antology 1(album release), 1995

The Day After(TV movie), 1983

"A Soldier's Play"(Fuller Pulizer winning play), 1981

"Cabaret"(Musical), 1966

"The Seven Year Itch"(Play), 1952

"The Children's Hour"(Play), 1934

"The Goldbergs"(Radio), 1929

The Sheik(Film, with Rudolph Valentino), 1921

"Das Lied von der Erde/The Song of the Earth"(Mahler symphony), 1911

"The Doctor's Dilemma"(Play), 1906

"Fidelio"(Opera, Beethoven Op. 72), 1805

Today in History:

Bögü, Khan of the Uyghurs, conquers Lo-Yang, capital of the Chinese Empire, 762

Zumbi, the last leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares of Brazil, is executed, 1695

New Jersey becomes the first state to ratify the US Bill of Rights, 1789

Curacao's government forbids slave work on Sunday, 1795

Howard University is founded in Washington, D.C., 1866

US State Department starts requiring photographs for passports, 1914

The first municipally owned airport in US opens, in Tucson Az, 1919

In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation, 1962

The SETI Institute is founded, 1984

Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released, 1985

The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million, 1989

In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage, 1992

The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched, 1998

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level in eleven years, 2008

NATO agrees to begin handing over Afghanistan's security to the Afghan military, 2010

The UN World Meteorological Organization announces the 2011 greenhouse gasses reached record levels, 2012

A vote of the General Synod of the Church of England approves women to be ordained bishops beginning the next year, 2013